Books Read 2024

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This is a collection of essays Rand published over time, far less an actual book or a manifesto at whole. Yet all concern the arts, romanticism and the objectivst spin Rand brings on to them. It's worth it alone for a few quotes that shall stick with me for a long time, notably her paragraph on love, as well as that on the reason for studying philosophy. I wonder if feelings of such a type are more or less present today than in the past. This *Love as an expression of philosophy*, selected upon by ones own sense of life, seems strangely absent today. One may say that it's never been a common thing, Minnesang and all its successors were reserved for an elite after all, but it'll be a dark century if it is the the one in which we finally lose it all to vanity. On a more personal note, it is an enormous privilege to have felt it once, to do so twice is to tempt God. Yet I shall try it again regardless.

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What a lovely ride this one. Enjoyful for the action and dystopia alonne, this one also adds quite the deep subtext in philosophy, grammar, linguistics, all of it. Frankly, i'm not even sure the story would be that terrible of a future; Sure it's devoid of many of the amenities we have right now, but the neigh anarchic structure does seem to work quite well.

The way the automation, say the librarion, work are quite interesting. They speak, but don't think. Current LLM research tends to show how much of thought directly transfers from speech: Metaphors, relationships, higher order function. It's motivated me to look into religion more as well, we see if I get to read some scripture in due time.

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While i came in with high expectations, they were not met. The book is interesting, has plenty of characters, but doesn’t get much across. It’s far more a collection of personal anecdotes than an analysis of propulsion tech. Nonetheless, it has some value in the history department, and clark’s jovial tone really helps here. Overall, it’s quite dated and i’d only refer it to a well educated person with an eye for history.

I feel as if my ability to absorb material at this density is reduced as my sleeping schedule goes nightward. nonetheless, i’ve picked up some invaluable insights from this work, among others: the relation of E and B fields under lorentz transform. Utterly didactic and probably best as a companion to the lecture series. highly recommended.

This was truly an incredible read. Did not expect to enjoy a relatively old book on the history of science as much as I did. It focuses on big innovators (notably Newton, Lavoisier, Einstein and Maxwell) and uses their historic positions to illustrate his points clearly. It's about as page-turny as such a book can get.

It's influence, both wrt content and linguistically is immense. Just so that terms like "paradigm shift" have taken on a life of their own and changed much from their original meaning.

Much of what kuhn describes, students becoming scientists, has lost itself in college politics and bureaucracy. The most innovative fields like CS ahve their research done in large parts by private companies. Will be interesting to see where the next paradigm shift brings us to.

Book runs you through most of early CS math, with a special focus on Russell’s principles, as well as Gödel and Hilbert. Turing’s work is discussed from a solution to first-order predicate logic, less from an engineering viewpoint.

Excellent to review the fundamentals and to grasp the essence of the proofs involved in the process. I especially enjoyed the section on the discussion of the halting problem, as well as the uniting of λ-calculus with the Turing machine.

Not all is positive; sometimes the comments seem to add little value to the descriptions as provided by Turing. A more modern approach could rehash this with modern programming concepts, making it more relatable, but would lose much of the appeal of following this through Turing’s lens.

All in all, recommended reading, but by no means necessary.

This was not an easy book to get through. One is often bewildered by the extent of the depravity of a system predicated upon evil. Such a system does not propagate via evil men, but via cowards, second handers and those happy to simply follow orders. But one notices that similarly, bravery can be extracted from everyone. Collective action against totalitarianism has brought real actionable results.

The world is built by those who improve it, Genius raises us further than evil could hope to push us down. The threat of totalitarianism is omnipresent, but the goal maximum liberty. It’s the goal all society will eventually converge to.

Excellent and very concise. Especially for the uninitiated this provides excellent groundwork in economics. I recommend to read some select chapters that one finds interesting, that makes the most sense. Frankly, a few graphs would've helped. The lack of equations makes sense, though the amount of percentages is basically the same thing as a graph and visualization would not hurt.

Overall an excellent read. Isaacson's writing style is very distinct and surprisingly near identical to his talking. Nonetheless a significantly more thorough telling of Mr. Musk's life than the Ashlee Vance book. Particularly enjoyed the focus on the more psychological side of his, offering a new perspective on his life. Interesting to view as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale. Overall, nothing massively new for me, whilst remaining quite interesting. At the same time, interesting to take with, the ways of handling decision making and the need to step forward in times of crises.

So begins the novel that, dense and interwoven as it may be, is in essence a heist story set in a future where megacorporations control a world in which the neon lights shinjuku meet the controlled anarchy of Kowloon. Written by someone who had never even used a computer, yet revolutionary in its treatises on technology. Neuromancer is no easy read and certainly benefits tremendously from a reread. The prose, noisy and laden much like Cyberspace itself, weaves plot with philosophical notions in a masterful tone. A book that was so mind-bending for its contemporaries and holds up superbly to the technology of our time is a must read for any fan of the genre.

Decent book. It's not a particularly heavy read, nor is it a revolutionary or mind-altering one but it is incredibly fun. The worldbuilding is some of the best I've seen in a near future scenario and a true breath of fresh air from all the apocalyptic decel writing that's rather prevalent nowatdays. Reminds me a lot of Heinlein. Characters are realistic, with real strengths and weaknesses that don't contradict each other. The inner psyche of Marcus, a kind of space trucker, is explored thoroughly with the interplay between him and Miranda, essentially the heiress of the unnamed founder of SpaceX being forced. The physics and engineering are next level. It's actually consistent, fits into the worldbuilding. The way tech is distributed makes a ton of sense and you're not left wondering, as is the case so often, why someone doesn't just use this abundant knowledge and development to get rid of scarcity.